ATHENS, Ga. – California stars Karla Popovic, Maegan Manasse and Maya Jansen return to postseason action this week when they start the NCAA individual tournaments at the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Popovic and Manasse are among the 64 players who will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship that starts on Wednesday, while the pair of Manasse and Jansen will play in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship starting Thursday. Both tournaments – and the college tennis season – will conclude on May 29.
 
As one of eight singles players seeded 9-16, Popovic – who earned an invitation to play in the NCAA individual tournament for the first time – earns All-American status.
 
In Wednesday's singles, the 34th-ranked Manasse will face Mississippi's 27th-ranked Arianne Hartono at 8 a.m. ET in their first career matchup, while the 10th-ranked Popovic will take on Oklahoma State's 56th-ranked Katarina Adamovic at 3 p.m. ET. Popovic faced Adamovic when Cal played the Cowgirls in the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship on Feb. 12. Popovic was leading 6-4, 3-6, 5-2 when OSU clinched the overall, 4-2, victory, and their match was abandoned.
 
On Thursday at a time TBA, the 34th-ranked Jansen and Manasse will play Missouri's 10th-ranked Amina Ismail and Bea Machado Santos in the doubles opening round of 32. When Cal beat Missouri, 4-0, in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Jan. 30 in Berkeley, Manasse and Jansen defeated a different Tigers pair – Machado Santos and Clare Raley – 6-1.
 
Live Coverage
Fans can watch the live streams and follow the live scores of the NCAA matches at the Henry Feild Courts and McWhorter Courts in Athens by clicking here.
 
NCAA Tournament Site
For more details – including the match schedule, ticket information and much more – please visit Georgia's NCAA Championship site by clicking here.
 
Last Time: Cal Falls to Commodores
Another strong postseason run came to a close for Cal, as the 13th-seeded/13th-ranked Golden Bears lost to fourth-seeded/third-ranked Vanderbilt, 4-1, in the NCAA round of 16 on May 19 in Athens.
 
In her last dual match as a Bear, grad student Maya Jansen won at court-five singles, beating Georgina Sellyn, 6-4, 6-3. With Cal trailing 3-1, senior Maegan Manasse – ranked 34th – was on the verge of upsetting Vanderbilt's fourth-ranked Astra Sharma on court one. The Cal star won the first set 6-4 and was playing a second-set tiebreaker when the match ended. The Commodores clinched the victory when the 102nd-ranked Christina Rosca defeated 123rd-ranked Cal senior Denise Starr, 7-5, 6-1, at court-three singles, and all the remaining matches were abandoned.
 
Scouting the Bears

• Karla Popovic (38-5), who began the 2016-17 season 21-0, was named Pac-12 Player of the Week on Feb. 27 for winning twice in singles and twice in doubles in Cal's 6-1 victories over UCLA on Feb. 24 and USC on Feb. 25
• Against the Bruins, Popovic upset the second-ranked Ena Shibahara, 6-3, 6-3, and the next day she defeated the Trojans' 33rd-ranked Gabby Smith, 7-6(5), 6-1
• In the fall, Popovic won the singles title at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships
• Maegan Manasse improved to 16-7 in singles after beating San Jose State's 81st-ranked Sybille Gauvain, 6-3, 6-2, in the round of 64; her singles matches in the last two rounds have gone unfinished
• Manasse, the April Pac-12 Player of the Week, closed the regular season with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) come-from-behind, upset win over Stanford's 41st-ranked Caroline Doyle in the Big Slam
• Jansen, a two-time NCAA champion in doubles in her Alabama days, and Manasse – an NCAA doubles runner-up last season – improved to 16-5 after beating the 88th-ranked Gauvain and Marie Klocker, 6-2, to clinch the point in the NCAA team tournament round of 64 vs. San Jose State, upsetting LSU's 16th-ranked Joana Valle Costa and Ryann Foster, 6-2, in the round of 32 and upsetting Vanderbilt's top-ranked Astra Sharma and Emily Smith, 6-4, in the round of 16
• Jansen earned the Pac-12 Player of the Week honor on Feb. 13 for her play at the ITA National Women's Team Indoor championship
• Cal alumna Amanda Augustus (class of 1999) was named the 2016 Wilson/ITA National Coach of the Year and was a two-time NCAA doubles champion in her playing days in Berkeley; she is in her 10th season as head coach of the Bears
• Zack Warren in in his third year as the Cal women's tennis assistant coach

 
Last Time at NCAAs: Manasse/Starr Reach 2016 Final
Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr capped a tremendous season for Cal with a runner-up finish in the 2016 NCAA Doubles Championship on May 30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The fourth-seeded Cal stars fell to Florida's third-seeded Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, 6-2, 6-0, in the final. The Bears beat several talented pairs – including North Carolina's top-seeded Haley Carter and Whitney Kay in the semifinals, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0(7) – along the way. Manasse produced Cal's best finish in NCAA singles, as she reached the round of 16.
 
Cal's NCAA History
Cal has won two NCAA singles championships and five NCAA doubles titles, with Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen capturing back-to-back doubles crowns in 1998 and 1999. Jensen threepeated by winning the 2000 doubles title with Claire Curran, Raquel Kops-Jones and Christina Fusano won the 2003 championship, and Mari Andersson and Jana Juricova took home the 2009 doubles crown. In singles, Juricova captured the 2011 championship, with Suzi Babos winning Cal's first NCAA singles title in 2006.
 
NCAA Lauds Bears For APR
Cal women's tennis was one of a record-seven Cal teams to earn NCAA Public Recognition Awards for their exceptional results in the classroom. Each of the seven – women's tennis, men's tennis, women's golf, women's gymnastics, lacrosse, volleyball and men's water polo – posted a perfect multiyear Academic Progress Rate of 1,000. Cal's seven recognized programs ties for the second most in the Pac-12.
 
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance. The most recent APRs are multiyear rates based on scores from the 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years.